Voyage Bubble will defend his Group One Hong Kong Mile crown in a capacity field that also features Japan’s Soul Rush and Embroidery, Aidan O’Brien’s The Lion In Winter and French colt Beauvatier.

Trainer Ricky Yiu Poon-fai and Voyage Bubble’s owners opted to drop the Triple Crown hero back to a mile rather than tackle the Group One Hong Kong Cup (2,000m) after he ran second to Romantic Warrior in last Sunday’s Group Two Jockey Club Cup (2,000m).

Zac Purton is expected to again take the ride with James McDonald, who guided Voyage Bubble to victory in last year’s Hong Kong Mile, committed to riding last Sunday’s Group Two Jockey Club Mile victor Galaxy Patch.

Voyage Bubble, Galaxy Patch and emerging galloper My Wish lead the local charge in the HK$36 million feature, with last year’s third placegetter Beauty Joy, the consistent Happy Together, Sunlight Power, Copartner Prance, Red Lion and Patch Of Theta rounding out Hong Kong’s representatives.

Five international raiders feature in the selected field, headlined by Soul Rush, who returns for a third crack at the Mile after finishing fourth to Golden Sixty in 2023 and second last year.

Exciting filly Embroidery will also figure in the Land of the Rising Sun’s Mile assault, bidding to emulate her sire Admire Mars who was Japan’s most recent winner of the race in 2019.

Trained by Kazutomo Mori and owned by Silk Racing, Embroidery makes her overseas debut off the back of five wins from eight starts.

She bagged her first Group One victory in the Japanese 1,000 Guineas (1,600m) and returned from a break in style with another elite-level triumph in the Shuka Sho (2,000m) last month.

The Lion In Winter burst on the scene with a pair of brilliant wins as a two-year-old and despite not winning since, he has continued to race consistently, including a last-start third to Notable Speech in the Group One Breeders’ Cup Mile at Del Mar.

The Mile will be Beauvatier’s swansong before he commences stud duties. Trained by Yann Barberot, the son of Lope De Vega has won six of his 17 starts and placed in multiple Group Ones. He arrives in Hong Kong fresh from victory in the Group Two Challenge Stakes (1,400m) at Newmarket last month.

Harry Eustace’s Group One Queen Anne Stakes (1,600m) winner Docklands rounds out the international representatives, returning for his second crack at the Mile after running 12th last year.

Pray For Mir and Massive Sovereign are the reserves.